The Postal History of Andorra (Part 2)

By D. W. Tanner

The 20th Century

At the turn of the century Andorra still maintained its traditional
isolation and continued to be governed largely in accordance with the
suggestions contained in the Manual Digest of 1748,
one of the maxims in which counselled that the routes through the
frontier passes should never be put into good condition but left rough
and in bad state so as to avoid their use by troops in times of war
between France and Spain. From such considerations the traditionalist
section of the General Council, which was usually
in the majority, had always opposed the building of roads across the
country, although the lack of good communications with the neighbouring
states hindered any major developments within Andorra such as the
exploitation of the thermal springs and other natural resources to
attract visitors and trade. The local textile industry, which although
small had been of some importance as it afforded a little home
employment to the womenfolk, had become almost extinct owing to the more
modern methods introduced elsewhere, and for this same reason the last
of the forges, which had operated from at least the middle-ages, had now
been closed. (Some idea of the diminutive size of this industry in the
late 19th century is to be gleaned from an old accounts book of the
Areny forge at Ordino, which records that in the year l872 it produced
97 tons of iron). The community thus remained essentially an
agricultural one, and by no means self-supporting, only some 4% of the
land being cultivable and the growing of tobacco preferred to that of
grains and vegetables.

The need to dispense with some of the old traditions and to connect the
country with its neighbours was apparent, and in the year 1899 the
Andorrans made a road from Soldeu towards the French frontier, expecting
the French to build a road on their side of the border from l'Hospitalet
to Pas de la Casa where the two would be linked. However, the French
road was for a long time delayed and it was not until the autumn of 1910
that it was finally completed by which time the Andorrans' road had been
largely destroyed by violent storms and the ravages of the Pyrenean
winters, no maintenance work ever having been carried out owing to its
lack of use pending the long awaited French section.
In the summer of the following year, 1911, the
Andorrans re-made their section and on Sunday 13th August much
excitement was caused in the tranquil hamlet of Soldeu by the arrival of
the first motor-car, driven by Dr. Gomma of Ax les Thermes.

In the meantime, the Bishop of Urgel Juan Laguarda (l902-l905) had
successfully approached the Spanish Government for the construction of a
road from La Seo de Urgel to Andorra's southern frontier, and his
successor, Bishop Benlloch - who is featured on
the peseta values of the l929 stamp issue - was later able to have the
road extended right up to the Andorran capital, this being finished in
l913. The end of Andorra's age-old isolation appeared to be swiftly
approaching, but was yet still to be delayed for another two decades by
the first world war and the general recession which followed, and it was
not until l933 that the road linking the two frontiers was eventually
completed by the hydro-electric company, F.H.A.S.A.,
in return for a concession to build power-generating stations in the
country.

Having moved ahead in time during this digression concerning Andorra's
roadways, we now return to the beginning of the century to take up again
the recording of the references to the postal services.

The first date we have been able to find occurs in a Spanish work
published some years ago, which states:-

"We know that in the year 1909 the Spanish State was paying for the
postman who carried on the service from Seo de Urgel to Andorra, who
was paid by the postal administration of Lerida." (1)

This coincides with Mr. Baro's statement, recorded earlier, that Spain
paid for the delivery of the mail to Sant Julia de Loria, the nearest
town to the Spanish frontier.

With his pants down!

When making his historic trip by motor car to Soldeu on 13th August
1911, Dr. Gomma had a brief and rather amusing encounter with the mail
carrier employed by the French Postal Service.
He writes:-

"In the neighbourhood of the summit we met the old carrier who
daily conveys the mails to Porté, perched on a superbly harnessed
mule. One could scarcely believe ones eyes! It appears that on the hot
days in summer the poor old man likes, in order to travel more at his
ease and more happily, to tuck his trousers into his letter-sack, and he
does not put them on again until he nears the village. How he must have
cursed us. In future he will be obliged to be more correct." (2)

Another reference to the French courier service at about the same period
is found in the book "Travels in the
Pyrenees" dealing with a journey made in 1912:

"We presently came upon the solitary postman, flattened against the
wet hillside to let us pass. Nearly every day of his life, through the
driving snow, the white mists, and the bright sunshine of summerdays,
this faithful servant crosses from Andorra into France, and from France
into Andorra. What a singular life, and what bodily efficiency it
demands! It has its perils also, for more than once a postman of
Andorra has lost his life in a snow-storm upon high mountain
passes."

An Interesting Discovery

About 1913, during another visit to Andorra, Dr. Gomma made some
enquiries concerning the post on behalf of a stamp collector friend of
his, and during the course of these made an interesting discovery - that
there existed a hitherto unrecorded postal cachet, the origin of which
remains obscure. This consists of a double circle, with the inscription
"CORREUS ANDORRA" between the two rings, and has the arms of
Andorra in the centre. Dr. Gomma's letter to his collector friend was
published in "Le Collectionneur de Timbres
Poste" No. 391 of May l9l3, and tells of his discovery as follows:-

"One morning, during the course of an excursion with my friend
Bailles, a photographer from Ax, we sought out the local postal
official at Andorra la Vella. This high official proved to be a
shoemaker who, having explained that mail was despatched to France via
Porté franked with a French stamp, and to Spain via La Farga de
Moles and Seo de Urgel franked with a Spanish stamp, placidly went to
resume his task of piercing an upper with his awl. We would not let him
off with so little information, and when he at last understood what we
were asking he unearthed from a drawer littered with cobblers wax,
leather cuttings and bootnails, a postmarking cachet, a metal chop.
Very kindly he gave us permission to strike it on our postcards, but
when we attempted to avail ourselves of this authorisation we found
that the inking pad was dried out! We moistened it with a little water,
then with some black ink, and postmarked our cards. The postman then
told us that the cachet should have been used regularly on the
inter-Andorran correspondence, from parish to parish, but that it was
hardly ever used."

The statement that the cachet was for use on the internal mail is very
definitely open to question seeing that it was not a
date-stamp and no purpose whatever would have been served by
applying it to such correspondence.

Further reference to this Catalan cachet was made by another
correspondent of "Le Collectionneur de Timbres-Poste" in the
issue for September 1919 No. 45

"In the interior of Andorra the conveyance of letters is free of
charge. Abroad, the Andorrans can use either the French office (in this
case the mail is carried by the postman to the office at Porté
after French stamps have been affixed) or the Spanish office (Seo de
Urgel, Spanish stamps). According to regulations, - and I would add
that it is almost never done - the mail for despatch should be endorsed
with the "CORREUS ANDORRA" mark to establish its origin; this
mark must be struck in such a way as not to touch the stamps, which
have to be cancelled at Porté or Seo de Urgel. This cachet is to
be found in an inn at Andorra la Vella where the post is centralised
and stamps are on sale. I would add that because these formalities are
not carried out this cachet is very rare. In order to obtain it I had
to insist personally that it be struck on the correspondence which I
sent from Andorra."

In view of the fact that the cachet is inscribed in Catalan, it is
unlikely to have been supplied by the French postal authorities to
indicate the origin of mail conveyed by their unofficial courier
service; nor does it seem feasible that it would have been provided by
the postal administration of Spain. When it was provided, by whom, and
for how many years it had laid around unused remain a mystery. Senor
Francisco Carreras y Candi, from whose articles we have quoted on a
number of occasions, suggests that the cachet dates from about 1896 and
that it was supplied to an agent in Andorra by the Barcelona stamp
dealer, Don Plácido Ramón de Torres, who was responsible for
the production of an apocryphal series of stamps for Andorra some years
previously. We have, however, been unable to find any evidence that such
"stamps" were ever available (as "souvenirs") in Andorra
itself, and the very few cancelled copies which we have seen bear a
totally different type of "postmark". The cachet is to be found
on circulated covers as late as 1928 and also philatelically applied to
stamps of both France and Spain affixed to uncirculated envelopes and
portions thereof.

In l926 a British postal employee visiting Andorra found the postal
arrangements almost unchanged, with the French courier service still
operating between Soldeu and Porté exactly as it had done in the
l890s. He writes:

"The postal arrangements in Andorra, the smallest republic in the
world (on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees), are probably unique. There
are no railways. The "roads" are mostly mule tracks, difficult
even for pedestrians. Letters are carried by rural postmen. Inland
letters are conveyed free of charge! Foreign letters bearing French
postage stamps are despatched through France; those bearing Spanish
postage stamps reach their destination through Spain. For this service
two rural postmen are recruited from the inhabitants of Andorra by the
French Post Office. One is paid from funds provided by the French Post
Office and the other from funds granted by the Spanish Administration.
The former has the harder task. He makes the journey from the Andorran
village of Soldeu through the pass known as the Port d'Embalire (2,460
metres) and over the Col de Puymorens (1,9l8 metres), the second
highest main road pass in the Pyrenees, to Porté on the French
side of the Andorran frontier, weather permitting. He starts at 4a.m.
Today he did not perform the arduous task owing to a snow-storm in the
early morning. We left Porté at 7.30a.m. and found the tail end of
the storm at the Col de Puymorens very trying. At 9.30a.m. the sky
cleared and a scorching sun beat down upon us. It softened the deep
snow drifts on the Port d'Embalire and we sank up to the thighs at
every step. From Porté the mails for France are conveyed by road
to the town of Bourg-Madame, thence by electric railway to Perpignan on
the main line to Barcelona from Marseilles and Toulouse... Mails for
Spain are conveyed by rural postmen to the capital, Andorra la Vella.
Thence by motor coach to Seo de Urgel, crossing the Andorran frontier
near Sant Julia de Loria." (3)

The statement here that the second of two postmen appointed by the
French Post Office was paid from funds provided by the Spanish
Administration must be based on some misunderstanding, as apart from the
obvious unlikelihood of Spain paying a French recruit the implication is
that this postman did not even go in the direction of Spain seeing that
the mail was now sent to Seo de Urgel by motor coach; he would,
therefore, appear to have been the courier operating between Andorra la
Vella and Soldeu, in the French courier service.

The book "Along the Pyrenees", published in
1925, also indicates that there were no Spanish postmen operating into
Andorra at this period. Describing a delivery of mail the author writes:

"At Sant Julia de Loria the coach driver handed all the letters in
his pocket, some twenty or twenty five, to a businesslike boy of
eleven, in a dirty linen smock, standing by the wheel. The boy looked
them over, retained those presumably addressed to Sant Julians, and
handed back the others. He was at once surrounded by an eager little
group and on the spot he delivered everything, except one postcard
which at once, in all its details, engaged the boy and all those who
had been disappointed in receiving mail themselves."

That Spain contributed nothing at all towards the cost of the Andorran
postal service is categorically stated in an article published soon
afterwards in l'Echo de la Timbrologie" No. 761 of September l927,
which again mentions the delivery charge on mail arriving from Spain,
first referred to by Mr. Baro as having been levied in the 1890s.

"In the most important villages a postman is encharged with the
sale of French and Spanish stamps. He is paid by the General Council of
the Valleys and by France. As Spain does not pay anything he collects
5 centimos from the addressee of each letter coming from Spain. These
postmen are not provided with any postmarking devices. There exist,
besides, four French telegraph offices in the four most important
parishes. These offices have a cachet." (i.e. date-stamp)

Two covers forwarded to him by his informant are then described by this
correspondent, and we give the details considering that they may be of
interest in view of the scarcity of such items:

"The first is franked with a 50 centimes French stamp obliterated
with a double circle postmark "PORTE - PYRENNES ORLES. - 24 Avril
27." On this envelope is the telegraph office mark "SOLDEU -
ANDORRE 23.4.27." and the Spanish (i.e. Catalan) cachet
"CORREUS ANDORRA" with the arms in the centre. These two marks
have, without doubt, been put on the cover for my sake and are
curiosities. The second cover is franked with two Spanish 20 centimos
stamps and bears the obliteration "SEO DE URGEL - LERIDA" with
an illegible date, plus a small round mark, certainly applied by
favour, "ANDORRE LA VIEILLE - VALLE D'ANDORRE .. Juin 27." (This
the mark of the French telegraph office in the Andorran capital; the
franking of 40 centimos was the Spanish foreign rate, for a letter sent
from Andorra to France via Spain.)

The application of the telegraph office marks to these and similar
covers tends to suggest that the telegraph offices may have been used as
depositaries for the mail.

Reference to the delivery charge on mail from Spain occurs in one other
article, which was submitted to the U.P.U. magazine by the
Spanish Postal Directorate in Madrid, and can
therefore be regarded as being of an official character. Dealing in
general with the postal arrangements prior to l928 this article states:-

"Until the year l928, when Spain established the postal Service in
Andorra, the Principality had no post offices and the least postal
organisation. All that existed there was a postman, or messenger, who
used to go from Andorra la Vella to Seo de Urgel to collect the mail
from Spain. At the same time he collected in the capital of Andorra and
the villages along his route the letters addressed to Spain. In return
this messenger only received the 5 centimos delivery fee for each
letter, a fee which it was customary for postmen in Spain to receive
at that time. The same agent used also to collect the letters for
France and the rest of Europe, excluding Portugal and Spain, and
deliver them to the post office at l'Hospitalet (*) (France), from
which the mail addressed to Andorra was collected. In payment this
postman received a small sum from the French vegueria. (**) There was
also a second postal agent, appointed by the
General Council of Andorra, to collect and
deliver letters in the localities and hamlets which were not situated
on the route of the postman from Andorra la Vella to Seo de Urgel and
l'Hospitalet. (*)" (4)

(*) "l'Hospitalet" should, in fact, be "Porté".
(**) "vegueria" - the office of the French representative, or
"Viguier".

It is noteworthy that in this article submitted by the Spanish Postal
Directorate no claim is anywhere made that Spain had contributed towards
the cost of the postal service in Andorra prior to l928, while it is
acknowledged that both France and the General Council supported the
service then existing. If Spain had helped to finance the arrangements
also then mention of the fact would almost certainly have been made, and
we are thus left to conclude that Spain played no part in the Andorran
postal service prior to 1928, beyond delivering the mail to Sant Julia
de Loria.

Before dealing with the circumstances leading to the establishment of
the Spanish Postal Service in Andorra, a final word
regarding the French courier service which, despite the natural
obstacles, had so faithfully served the inhabitants for nearly half a
century. This continued to function until the present French Postal
Service was created in 1931, by which time it was no longer necessary
for the mail carriers to make the hazardous crossing of the mountains in
wintertime in view of the Hispano-French
agreement, effective from 1st August 1930, by which the mail for France
would be routed via Spain when direct communication between Andorra and
France presented difficulties. There was, however, a temporary return to
something reminiscent of the old service during the winters of 1936-39
when, because of the Spanish Civil War, the French did not route their
mails via Spain but had them conveyed direct between Porté and
Andorra by skiers of the French army. (5)